The NRL Preview Notepad helps you get ready for Round 10 with talking points, players to watch and trends to follow every week.
Magic Members Memo
Repeatable Bulldogs
The Canterbury-Bankstown earned a well-deserved win last week. They moved the ball, played an exciting brand of footy and reaped the rewards. However, that isn’t going to work every week.
This Corey Waddell try is a ripper.
Doubling up on the short side, Josh Reynolds takes the space before Waddell kicks his way through a disjointed line to score one of the more surprising tries of the season.
Later, an early shift out of yardage ends with Jake Averillo scoring another individual beauty.
Some consistency in the position he’s being named in is paying dividends for Averillo at the moment. He’s lightning quick and being put in positions to use his speed.
Finally, another long pass in yardage (these won’t be available every week let alone come off every week) and one of the worst defensive efforts we will see this NRL season allows Averillo to make the most of his speed again to score a second.
They’re three great tries in isolation, but they’re not particularly repeatable. The long shifts from yardage will be on from time to time, but the Bulldogs can’t rely on those actions to score points. Instead, it comes down to Matt Burton and how the attack links up in good ball. I’ll be paying close attention to how he links up with Karl Oloapu, in particular.
Kini Time
Keano Kini is expected to make his NRL debut this week and he’s a player I’ve been keeping an eye on in the Queensland Cup this year.
He’s a local boy to me. He attended my rival rugby school of Rosmini College in Auckland, and played his junior footy just around the corner at Northcote Tigers. We don’t have so much of a ‘local junior’ following in New Zealand so it’s always good to see a youngster from the area crack the big time.
He is young, though.
Perhaps seeing him play the massive Papua New Guinea Hunters in person made it more noticeable, but he’s small, too.
At 177cm, 83kg and 19-year-old, Kini is raw and in the very, very early stages of his development both physically and fundamentally. Still, he has managed to average 181 running metres per game and displayed positive signs as a ball player out the back of shape.
He has the skills to have a positive impact on the Titans attack this week. It’s in defence that he might become a target. Nonetheless, I’m looking forward to seeing how he goes and the experience he will gain this week, even if he doesn’t feature in the NRL again this year, will put him in a good positive to perform well at Cup level.
Liam at The Maroon Observer put together more on the young fella. Give it a read here and subscribe to his newsletter.
Is Seb Kris a good fullback?
Seeing Seb Kris named as the injury replacement for Xavier Savage came as a surprise.
Seeing him hold the fullback spot after a dodgy couple of games also raised eyebrows.
Now, Savage has been named to start on the wing in his return with Kris retaining the #1 jersey.
We caught a few glimpses of Kris in really good fullback actions last week. The sort he wasn’t always there to be involved in earlier in the season. Here, he pushes up around the ball as the Raiders break down the right edge. He never takes possession, but once Jordan Rapana takes the tackle, Kris is on his bike.
What’s most encouraging is that Kris sees the space on the left edge early. Where an inexperienced fullback might stay planted on the right edge after pushing up in support, Kris knows the Dolphins defensive line is scrambled and works to expose it.
He wraps around to the left edge which pushes Hudson Young out to the numbers.
Where Isaiya Katoa may have been able to hold on a Young lead and bounce out to help in cover, the numbers no wwork against him. He’s an impossible position with Kris involved and the Raiders make it count.
Involved as a ball player later in the game, Kris throws a lovely face ball to Rapana on the wing.
Premeditated? Maybe. Short to Matt Timoko probably ends in points, too. Nonetheless, it’s a genuine fullback’s pass and an action we wouldn’t have attributed to Kris earlier on in his time at the position.
Is he a longer-term option there?
Is Ricky Stuart simply looking to get more reps into Savage before reinstalling him at the back?
Whatever it is, Kris has impressed and is playing himself into becoming a legitimate second option at the back at worst.
Wests Tigers Writers
Another week, another little bit on the Wests Tigers.
They’re that team for me this year.
While I didn’t expect them to beat the Penrith Panthers of all teams, the win had been coming for a few weeks. Now it’s important that they build on it and continue to run with the actions that are working.
One that still seems to be in the development stages is their use of Isaiah Papai’i.
“Parramatta found a lot of success dropping Papali’i back underneath on the right edge, triggering a quick play-the-ball, and firing the ball to the left edge on the following tackle. He was often the trigger to a lot of their attacking raids down their dangerous left edge. I’ve not seen a consistent approach to how Wests want to use Papali’i outside of handing him the ball and asking him to create something while carting it up at a set defensive line. Something needs to change, and perhaps using him more like their opposition this week has done in the past is the answer.” – Round 6 Repeat Set
His involvement was notable within the first three minutes in Round 9.
They looked to him early by playing him onto Nathan Cleary. Papali’i is a brutal ball carrier and tackle-breaker. He can make the sort of dents in the defensive line that don’t start to crack until a play or two later.
It doesn’t eventuate into anything here, but you can see how the Tigers shape up on the long side following the Papali’i carry. That’s the trigger even though the Tigers didn’t fire a shot.
Earning a six again in the same set, the Tigers throw something different. This time Api Koroisau drops Papali’i back underneath – I like it. Playing back to the middle before firing their next shot, Koroisau sells the dummy to Papali’i underneath and goes close to scoring himself.
As it turns out, the Tigers score on the very next play.
Koroisau dragged Dylan Edwards into the tackle and he can’t get across to clean up the Luke Brooks grubber in behind.
Wraparounds, hit and spins, deception and darts from dummy half. This seems to be the Tigers of 2023. They started the NRL season offloading at will for up to 21 per game. It dropped down to 17 per game and 15 per game. While still second in the competition, the Tigers now only average 11.7 offloads per game.
They’ve made adjustments and look a lot better for it. Against a Dragons side dealing with on and off-field issues, the Tigers should go back-to-back this week. If they continue to develop their attack around Papali’i like this and improve on their good ball efficiency, it won’t be long before they rise up the NRL ladder.
Quick NRL Notes
– The Bulldogs seem intent on pushing Karl Oloapu into more first grade footy with an eye on the future. Kyle Flanagan, at the very least, is out. I didn’t think he’d been poor to start the NRL season but given the results and long-term plan, he is on the outer. So, I’ll have an eye on Oloapu and where his game is at. Defensively, in particular. In the NSW Cup matches I’ve seen he has been a bit of a target.
– Xavier Savage is back. He’s an excitement machine so here’s hoping he finds some open space in front of a big Suncorp crowd.
– Toluta’u Koula looked really good in the centres before his injury. He’s back this week.
– I was surprised and impressed with Tesi Niu’s play on the wing before he went down. He has incredible leg drive and could become one of the better wingers in the NRL in time. Concerns around his hands and defence aren’t such a factor out on the wing.
– Campbell Graham is one of the form players in the competition at the moment. I covered his start to the season for NRL.com this week.
– The Dragons: Zac Lomax wasn’t the problem for the Dragons but he headlines a host of players dropped for this week. Ben Hunt might be playing at hooker, too?! I’m not a fan of either move at this stage.
– Sitili Tupouniua played out the best game I’ve ever seen from him last week. I’m excited to see how he builds on that and perhaps more importantly, where. Is he a middle?